The Awareness Center closed. We operated from April 30, 1999 - April 30, 2014. This site is being provided for educational & historical purposes.
We were the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault (JCASA); and were dedicated to ending sexual violence in Jewish communities globally. We did our best to operate as the make a wish foundation for Jewish survivors of sex crimes. In the past we offered a clearinghouse of information, resources, support and advocacy.

Monday, June 07, 1999

Aster
admitted abusing at least five more children, confirmed acts were
filmed. The District Attorney believed his office has enough evidence against the
accused, and therefore considers that none of the victims have to be
called to the stand. Several of the young girls (ages 8 to 13) who were allegedly molested by Sam Aster were members of the Orthodox Jewish community in Teaneck.

They believed at the time other children who might have been molested by Sam Aster atteneded the Yavneh Academy, an Jewish day school in Paramus.

Aster could have faced a jail term of more than 100 years if
convicted on all of the charges.

Sixteen charges
had been leveled against Aster, including one count of aggravated
sexual assault with a child under age 13, eight counts of endangering
the welfare of a child by videotaping children engaged in sexual acts,
and seven counts of second-degree sexual assault. On November 3, 1999 Samuel Aster was found dead in his home, this was prior to this case going to court. His body
hanging in the house about 6 p.m., sources said. A plastic bag covered
his head. One has to wonder if this was a suicide or if someone murdered him. How common it is for someone to be able to hang themselves with a plastic bag covering their head? Considering he was an alleged serial rapist, one has to wonder how many other children throughout his life he molested. How many of his victims were abused during his years living in Brookyn? How many rabbonim might have known that he was molesting and helped to cover up any alleged crimes? Many of the child survivors were never given the opportunity to have their day in court.

Aster received his Ph.D. from Columbia University and was a professor of the College of Manhattan since 1982 by some programs in the field of art.

If you have a photograph of Samuel Aster or more information about this case, please forward it to The Awareness Center.

A 60-year-old piano teacher from Teaneck has been charged with molesting one of his young students, authorities said Sunday.

Prosecutors said they were investigating whether Samuel S. Aster of Churchill Road may also have molested other children, all of them young girls.

Authorities said Aster was arrested shortly after midnight Saturday at
his home on charges that he sexually assaulted an 8-year-old Teaneck
girl during a piano lesson on Friday at his house. He was charged with
aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a minor.

The girl told her parents about the incident, and they immediately
contacted Teaneck police and investigators from the Bergen County
Prosecutor's Office, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Ike Gavzy said.

Investigators searched Aster's house and recovered evidence indicating
that Aster may have sexually assaulted several other young girls, Gavzy
said. He declined to elaborate.

"Let's just say this is an ongoing investigation," Gavzy said.

Sources close to the case said investigators from the Prosecutor's
Office's Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Unit were expected to interview
several other girls and their families Sunday and today.

Those interviews were delayed, authorities said, because at least some
are members of Teaneck's Orthodox Jewish community who could not have
been reached on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

It was not immediately clear how many students Aster taught, or how he solicited them.
No one answered the door Sunday at the sprawling, Tudor-style house
where Aster has lived with his wife and their 21-year-old son for the
past decade.

Neighbors on Churchill Road, a
sun-dappled street of pricey homes and carefully tended lawns, described
Aster as soft-spoken. They said they were shocked to hear that he had
been arrested.

"I don't know him well," said
Melvin Weinberg, who lives across the street. "I'd see him on the street
and say hello. He always seemed pleasant."

Milton Polevoy, who lives next door to Aster, said he, too, would often
wave to Aster, "when he and his wife were out gardening."

Polevoy said he knew that Aster, who authorities said also taught music
at Manhattan College, offered music lessons to young neighbors, but
this was the first time he had heard any allegations against the man.

The news traveled quickly, he said. "I heard about it this morning from somebody in another area of town," Polevoy said.

Aster remained held on $500,000 bail Sunday in the Bergen County Jail.

Music Teacher Accused Of Molesting StudentsNew York Times - June 8, 1999Teaneck - A music teacher was being held in $1 million bail yesterday after Bergen County authorities arrested him on suspicion of sexually assaulting young girls who had gone to him for piano lessons.

The teacher, Samuel S. Aster, 60, was arrested shortly after midnight Friday after an 8-year-old girl had reported to her parents earlier that day that she had been sexually abused by Mr. Aster during a piano lesson at his Teaneck home. Mr. Aster was charged with aggravated sexual assault and endangering the welfare of a minor.

Mr. Aster, who has a wife and a 21 year-old son, also taught music at Manhattan College.

William Schmidt, the Bergen County Prosecutor, said other children might have been involved and the investigation was continuing.

"A number of children may be involved and a number of them may be from the Orthodox Jewish community," he said. He said some parents or possible victims could not be reached on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath.

Samuel S. Aster,
the Teaneck piano teacher who now stands accused of sexually assaulting
two of his young students, secretly videotaped the attacks, sources
close to the investigation said Monday.

The tapes
allegedly helped lead authorities to the second victim, prompting
additional charges Monday against Aster, who was arrested Saturday.

The tapes show Aster fondling each of the victims, both 8 years old,
and are the strongest evidence against him, the sources said.

A search of Aster's Tudor-style house apparently turned up the tapes,
and other key pieces of evidence that authorities believe will lead them
to other victims, they said.

Aster, 60, was
being held on $1 million bail in the Bergen County Jail on Monday,
charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault and two counts of
endangering the welfare of a minor. Bail was originally set at $500,000
but was increased on Monday.

Investigators from
the prosecutor's Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Unit are expected to
interview at least five more of Aster's students, based on additional
evidence that they collected, Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Ike
Gavzy said.

"The investigation is continuing, and
we are talking to other people," Gavzy said, adding that the probe is
likely to continue at least until the end of the week.

Aster, a frail, gray-haired man who teaches music at Manhattan College, was arraigned Monday in Teaneck Municipal Court.

He said nothing to reporters as he was brought into court _ wearing a
bulletproof vest _ by a phalanx of Bergen County sheriff's officers.

Aster's attorney, J. Dennis Kohler of Hackensack, entered a not guilty
plea on his client's behalf. Kohler later declined to comment on details
of the case, saying he had not yet discussed it with his client.

The arraignment capped a busy day for investigators who arrested Aster
late Friday. Hours earlier, the first of his alleged victims, an
8-year-old girl, told her parents that Aster had assaulted her during a
music lesson in his Churchill Road home, Gavzy said.

Interviews with the victims were delayed because some of them are
members of Teaneck's Orthodox community who could not be reached on
Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, he said. But on
Sunday, investigators met with a second alleged victim, Gavzy said, and
on Monday afternoon, authorities filed additional charges against Aster.
Sources said that alleged attack is believed to have occurred within
the past month.

Teaneck - Researchers at the Child Abuse Unit and sex crimes prosecutor's office in Bergen County, conducted interrogations yesterday several girls, who came to take piano lessons with a man 60 years of Teaneck, which was arrested last Saturday and charged with sexually assaulted one of his students for eight years.

Details about the results of the interrogations were not disclosed, because the potential victims are minors. According to the Assistant Bergen County Prosecutor Ike Gavzy, most of the students who Samuel S. Aster taught classes belong to the Orthodox Jewish community in the city of Teaneck.

Aster was arrested on the afternoon of Saturday at his home in Teaneck, after an eight-year-old tell her parents that the piano teacher had sexually molested during class on Friday. When authorities went to the home of Aster, found evidence that suggest to the researchers that the teacher might have annoyed and even raped other girls. Gavzy, refused to talk about the complaint made ​​by the child and said only that the man was indicted on charges of sexual assault against a child under eight years, during events that occurred on the afternoon of Friday, when the child received his one hour of class piano. He added that "it appears that this man may have raped other girls. Meanwhile, it was learned that continuous Aster arrested in Bergen County Jail and was imposed a bail of half a million dollars.

Videotapes Said to Show Assaults on StudentsNew York Times - June 9, 1999

Videotapes that are said to show a 60-year-old piano teacher
sexually assaulting some of the children who came to his Teaneck home
for piano lessons were found in a weekend search of the man's house,
investigators familiar with the case said.

The investigators said the videotapes appeared to have been secretly recorded by the teacher, Samuel S. Aster.
The videotapes have led the investigators to question several other
children and families about their contacts with the teacher.
Investigators said there may be more charges filed against Mr. Aster,
who was first arrested on Friday after an 8-year-old student complained
to her parents that he had fondled her. The parents reported the
accusation to the police.

Mr. Aster was charged on Monday in a
second case involving a sexual assault on another 8-year-old, based on
interviews with the child over the weekend, said Ike Gravzy, the chief
of the Bergen County Prosecutors Child Abuse and Sex Crimes Unit. Mr.
Gravzy would not comment on the case or confirm the existence of the
videotapes, but said the investigation was continuing.

Mr.
Aster was being held yesterday on $1 million bond on two counts of
aggravated sexual assault and two counts of endangering the welfare of a
minor. He pleaded not guilty during his arraignment on Monday night in
Teaneck Municipal Court.

Stranger In The Circle of LightBy Seamus McGrawThe Recorder - June 15, 1999

Sabbath candles flickered on dining-room tables throughout Teaneck
on Friday, bathing the families of believers in a warm and comfortable
circle of light.

Wrapped in that circle, as if in
a prayer shawl, the families intoned ancient prayers in an ancient
tongue. It shielded them from the chaos of the world outside.

But there was a stranger inside that circle of light.

Less than a week earlier, Samuel S. Aster,
a 60-year-old piano teacher who had won the trust of the Orthodox
Jewish community, had been arrested on charges of sexually assaulting
two of his young pupils.

The girls, both 8 and
members of the insular religious community, had been attacked while
taking piano lessons in Aster's Churchill Road home, authorities said.

Adding to their humiliation, Aster allegedly also videotaped the assaults.

Authorities believe there may be more victims. Over the past week,
investigators met quietly with other girls and their families, compiling
what they said was additional evidence against Aster.

Yet even though Aster was in jail on $1 million bail, he was a presence
inside the circle of light at Sabbath tables all over Teaneck.

His arrest, says Nancy Block, a clinical psychologist and a member of
Teaneck's Orthodox community, has forced the group to deal with issues
that, until now, always seemed to affect other people in other places.

"We're not as insular as people in other {Orthodox} communities," she says.

"People read newspapers," she says of the community. "They watch television. They go to the movies."

Certainly, the Orthodox community has faced tragedy before. It wasn't
long ago that the community was rocked by the murder of two children by
their father, Avi Kostner. But that horror was seen, in most quarters,
as an aberration, the act of a brutal and selfish man.

Many of Teaneck's Orthodox Jews continued to believe they were somehow
safe within their enclave from the worst elements of the world depicted
in the media _ a world of violence and abuse, a world where children can
easily be victims and where adults must learn to cast a wary eye on
other adults, Block says.

"I think this is a
challenge for us," she says. "I think we have to learn how to walk that
thin line. We need to teach our children that they can trust adults, but
we also have to teach them to trust their instincts, to know when an
adult's behavior is inappropriate and to know that they can talk to us."

Tamar Kahane, also a psychologist and a member
of Teaneck's religious community, says she, too, believes that the
alleged sexual assaults have provided the community with an opportunity
"to fortify" its children with careful instruction and honest discussion
about the dangers of the world, both inside and outside the group.

But are those parents prepared for that kind of challenge? Many of them
have spent their entire lives adhering to a strict code designed to
keep the poisonous aspects of society from intruding inside that circle
of light.

And are there mechanisms in place to help the children who are victims cope with what has happened?

Slowly but surely, those mechanisms are developing, says Murray
Friedman, a Brooklyn activist who has seen Orthodox communities from
Borough Park to Rockland County grapple with such challenges.

Friedman says "it's taken 26 years" _ first for Orthodox Jews to accept
the idea that the ills of society at large can be visited on even the
most devout community, and then to recognize that the best way to combat
those evils is to talk about them openly,

Now,
from Brooklyn to Monsey, counselors and social workers and organizations
are moving into place, looking to identify the problems of abuse,
Friedman says. But what about here? What about now?

"That's a good question," says Rabbi Eugene Krallwasser, principal of Yavneh Academy, an Orthodox day school in Paramus.

At Yavneh and Moriah, school officials say they are working to
determine whether any of the victims are among their students, and are
prepared to offer counseling and support. But that goes only part of the way toward repairing the damage, Krallwasser says.

To really protect the children, he says, the community has to listen to
them. And that, in any community, is a difficult lesson to learn.

"When you and I were young, children were to be seen and not heard," he
says. "Now we live in a more open society, and I believe that, in the
community and outside of it, society is much more aware and on its
guard."

Still, there are many in the Orthodox
community, those "farthest to the right wing," Krallwasser says, who may
never be able to openly discuss the issue of sexual abuse with their
children.

"How can I judge?" he asks. "I'm not
convinced that what's going on in that community is so phenomenal, but
I'm not convinced that what we're doing is so phenomenal, either." It's a difficult question. There is no easy answer.

But it is a question that clearly can no longer be ignored, now that it
has forced itself inside the warm and comfortable circle of light
glowing around the Sabbath candles.

Teacher Allegedly Attacked Five More -- Bideotaped 7 Girls Prosecutor saysAgnes Hooper Gottilieb, Staff WriterThe Record (Bergen County, NJ) - June 23, 1999 Authorities on Tuesday charged a 59-year-old Teaneck piano teacher
with sexually assaulting five more of his young female students while
videotaping them.

Samuel S. Aster
also gave prosecutors a sworn statement detailing the crimes and his
videotaping of them, Bergen County Assistant Prosecutor Ike Gavzy said
during a bail hearing in Superior Court in Hackensack.

Defense attorney J. Dennis Kohler said he had not seen the statement, however.

Kohler had requested the hearing in a bid to have Aster's bail reduced.
Prosecutors, in turn, filed additional complaints against the music
professor Tuesday, alleging that he assaulted a total of seven girls
between the ages of 8 and 13.

Gavzy, of the sex
crimes unit, told Superior Court Judge William C. Meehan of a case "so
strong and so overwhelming" that he probably wouldn't have to call
victims to testify. Gavzy said he also had Aster's videotapes.

"Each one of those seven cases is as strong as the other," he said.

Gavzy argued unsuccessfully to maintain the $1 million bail that had been initially set after Aster's June 5 arrest.

Meehan reduced the bail to $500,000, noting that Aster had no previous
criminal record and had been an "exemplary citizen" prior to this
arrest.

The judge also cited the strength of the
prosecution's case, which he said was fortified "by the defendant's own
words as well as by videotapes backing that up."

"It's clear that Mr. Aster's world as he knows it has essentially collapsed," Meehan said.

Aster was arrested this month after an 8-year-old Teaneck girl told her
parents she was sexually assaulted during a piano lesson in his home,
authorities said. Two days later, he was charged with sexually
assaulting another 8-year-old.

On Tuesday, Gavzy
filed additional complaints alleging the sexual assault of five other
girls. Gavzy said Aster could face a jail term of more than 100 years if
convicted on all of the charges.

Sixteen charges
have been leveled against Aster, including one count of aggravated
sexual assault with a child under age 13, eight counts of endangering
the welfare of a child by videotaping children engaged in sexual acts,
and seven counts of second-degree sexual assault.

Kohler argued in favor of a bail reduction because Aster did not pose a
risk of flight. He described how his client had lived in Teaneck with
his wife and son for the last 12 years. His son, Kohler said, has
recently moved to Massachusetts. Before moving to New Jersey, Aster
lived in Brooklyn, where he was born and went to school, the defense
attorney said. Kohler described what he called an
exemplary life, including a doctorate from Columbia University and a
career in higher education that was capped by Aster's election to
chairman of his department this spring. During the recitation, the
gray-haired, bearded Aster stood next to his attorney, hands cuffed in
front of him. He did not speak.

Heidi Giovine,
Manhattan College's public information officer, said that Aster had been
on the faculty there since 1982. He is chairman of the fine arts
program and an associate professor.

"He is currently an employee of this college pending the outcome of this matter," Giovine said.

Kohler told the judge that his client's "wife, family, friends, and
colleagues" were in court with him. The wife, (NAME REMOVED) Aster, declined to
speak to reporters.

"Samuel Aster has always been
and is still today a kind, a caring, a sensitive, and, everybody says, a
gentle individual," Kohler claimed.

Hackensack - The case of a piano teacher from the town of Teaneck, who was indicted earlier this month for sexually assaulting a child of eight, has shocked the community where he lived, after the announcement that at least five other children went through the same experience.

Samuel Aster, 59 with calm and confident attitude, he should wield it to the parents to let their daughters alone to impart piano lessons at his home in Teaneck, appeared before Superior Court Judge for admitting sexually assaulted at least five other students his.

When her piano teacher were formulated additional charges, initially made the June 5, when he was arrested at home and charged with sexually assaulting one of his students from eight years of age.

Ike Gavzy, Assistant County Attorney, assure that Aster admitted abusing at least five more children, confirmed acts were filmed. He added that his office has enough evidence against the accused, and therefore considers that none of the victims have to be called to the stand.

Judge William Meehan reduced the bail of one million, imposed at first the teacher, five hundred thousand dollars, on the grounds that the defendant has no criminal history.

Aster was arrested after one of his students 8 years old told his parents he had been sexually assaulted by her teacher for piano lessons. So immediately attended police headquarters and two days after this event another girl of the same age, reported having had the same experience.

Dennis Kohler Aster lawyer, said his client now faces a total of 16 charges including aggravated sexual assault against a child under 13, eight counts of endangering the welfare of a child to be videotaped to girls while holding sexual acts and seven counts of second-degree sexual assault.

The defendant has an exceptional education includes a Ph.D. from Columbia University and is a professor of the College of Manhattan since 1982 by some programs in the field of art.

A Teaneck piano
teacher was found dead in his home Tuesday night, four months after he
was charged with molesting and videotaping seven of his young pupils,
authorities said.

Investigators believe Samuel S. Aster,
59, a college professor who gave private music lessons at his home on
Churchill Road, committed suicide. His wife, (NAME REMOVED), found his body
hanging in the house about 6 p.m., sources said. A plastic bag covered
his head, they said.

"It's almost like he wanted to make sure he would die," a law- enforcement source said on condition of anonymity.

Investigators found a note at the scene, but they declined to reveal its contents.

Aster's death drew comparisons to the suicide two weeks ago of
Edward R. Kotwica, a Garfield High School teacher and former sports
coach who stepped in front of a commuter train hours after he was
charged with fondling a 17-year-old student.

The search for more Garfield victims is continuing. But authorities said
there is no reason to believe there are more victims in Aster's case.

"In the Garfield case, it was necessary to continue the
investigation - certainly not to cast further negatives upon the coach,
but to identify the victims, to get them help, get them counseling,"
Fred L. Schwanwede, first assistant prosecutor for Bergen County, said
Tuesday night.

In Aster's case, he said, "we
were aware of who was involved, and the case basically was done, from an
investigative standpoint."

Bergen County
Assistant Prosecutor Ike Gavzy, who handled the case in June, said Aster
was about to be scheduled for a preindictment plea before a Superior
Court judge. Under such a plea, the grand jury phase of a criminal case
is avoided.

It was not clear Tuesday how Aster
intended to plead. A call to his lawyer, J. Dennis Kohler of Teaneck,
was not immediately returned.

Aster, who was
head of the fine arts program at Manhattan College in New York, moved to
Teaneck from Brooklyn 12 years ago with his wife and son. His lawyer
has said Aster held a doctorate from Columbia University and had a
successful career in higher education.

It was a portrait that clashed markedly with what prosecutors said in court.

In June, an 8-year-old pupil told her parents that Aster had
molested her during a music lesson in his Tudor-style home. Within a
week, prosecutors found seven alleged victims in all. The girls were
between 8 and 13 years old.

Prosecutors
leveled 16 counts against Aster, including aggravated sexual assault,
second-degree sexual assault, and endangering the welfare of a child. He
pleaded not guilty at his arraignment.

Later,
during a bail hearing in Superior Court in Hackensack, prosecutors said
Aster gave a sworn statement describing the crimes. Gavzy said he had a
copy of the video Aster had made.

Sources have said the tapes show Aster fondling each of the victims.

So strong was the evidence against Aster, Gavzy told the judge, that he probably would not have to call victims to testify.

The judge set bail at $500,000, which Aster posted. He was released.

"He was not to have any contact with any of the alleged victims,"
Gavzy said Tuesday. "There were no allegations that he did."

Investigators on Tuesday night were phoning the families of Aster's
alleged victims to tell them of the death, authorities said.

TEANECK - A 59-year-old piano teacher accused of molesting and
videotaping seven of his young students was found dead Tuesday night,
apparently a suicide. Samuel S. Aster
was found in his Teaneck home by his wife, hanging with a plastic bag
over his head, authorities said. He was charged in June with sexual
assault involving students, ages of 8 to 13. Prosecutors said he had
videotaped the encounters and had detailed the crimes in a signed
statement, although he pleaded not guilty.

TEANECK, N.J. - A 59-year-old piano teacher accused of molesting and
videotaping seven of his young students was found dead in his home in
an apparent suicide.

Samuel S. Aster was found in his home by his wife Tuesday night, hanging with a plastic bag over his head, authorities said.

He was charged in June with sexual assault involving students, ages of 8
to 13. Prosecutors said he videotaped the encounters and later detailed
the crimes in a signed statement, though he pleaded innocent to the
charges.

He was a music professor and head of the fine arts program at Manhattan College.

Aster's death came two weeks after a Garfield high school coach facing a
molestation charge committed suicide by stepping in front of a commuter
train.

For the second time in two weeks, a Bergen County educator charged
with sexually abusing female students has committed suicide, the
authorities said yesterday.

Samuel S. Aster,
a 60-year-old college music professor, hanged himself late Tuesday
afternoon in his Teaneck home where, the authorities say, he molested
seven girls, ages 8 to 13, during private piano lessons. He was arrested
in June.

On Oct. 20 Edward R. Kotwica, 51, the coach of the
girls' basketball team at Garfield High School, killed himself by
walking into a train's path, the county medical examiner's office ruled.
He was arrested hours earlier on allegations of molesting an
18-year-old member of the team.

TEANECK, N.J. - A 59-year-old piano teacher accused of molesting and
videotaping seven of his young students was found dead in his home in
an apparent suicide.

Samuel S. Aster was found in his Teaneck home by his wife Tuesday night, hanging with a plastic bag over his head, authorities said.

He was a music professor and head of the fine arts program at Manhattan College.

He was charged in June with sexual assault involving pupils ages 8 to
13. Prosecutors said he videotaped the encounters and later detailed the
crimes in a signed statement, though he pleaded innocent to the
charges.

Aster's death came two weeks after a Garfield high
school coach facing a molestation charge committed suicide by stepping
in front of a commuter train.

Pennsylvania lawmakers are looking at legislation to help keep sexually abusive teachers out of the state's schools.

After reading this week's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette series on abusive
teachers, state Sen. Melissa Hart, R-McCandless, said that "Pennsylvania
is not as vigilant as some other states in trying to take these people
out of the classroom."

She wants to look at current laws, then talk to teachers and school administrators groups.
"I expect that we'll come up with some legislation to make this better
than it is," she said. "This dismiss-them-and-let-them-leave- quietly
thing is ridiculous."

The PG series, "Dirty Secrets: Why
sexually abusive teachers aren't stopped" was published Sunday, Monday
and Tuesday. The series contained reports from abuse victims and
explained how a mishmash of state laws and background checks allows
molesters to escape detection.

Sen. Allen G. Kukovich, D-Manor,
also said he was planning to take a look at legislation proposed by the
state Department of Education.

"I realize we have to do
something [about abusive teachers], but I don't want people to be
misled," he said. "We're not going to stop this problem completely with
legislation."

While Hart has mentioned fingerprinting as a way
to prevent criminals from working in schools, Al Fondy, president of the
Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers and the state chapter of the American
Federation of Teachers, said yesterday he would oppose any such
attempt.

Now, only teacher applicants who have lived in
Pennsylvania for less than a year must be fingerprinted. But in 27 other
states, anyone who applies for a teaching certificate must be
fingerprinted.

Fondy said he hears of one or two cases a year of teachers acting
improperly toward students and that about half the time the accusations
turn out to be untrue. The PG stories, he said, were "really negative,
to say the least." He particularly objected to the radio ads promoting
the series.

"It made it sound like wherever your kids are at
school, you should be worried about their sexual safety. That stunk, it
really stunk," he said.

Fondy did say, however, that school
officials who write favorable letters of recommendation for problem
teachers, just to make them leave "are dead wrong and they should be
liable for that."

He also acknowledged that school districts
may not always do thorough checks. "As long as you have a teacher
shortage, you'll have people who are desperate to hire, and they don't
check what they ought to check."

Still, he said, the safeguards
for ensuring student safety in public schools are much more rigorous
than in private or charter schools.

After last week's series was published, several readers contacted the PG with their own stories of abuse by educators.

And in just the past few weeks, several more cases of teacher sexual
abuse have arisen around the country - including two New Jersey cases in
which the teachers committed suicide after being charged with molesting
students.

On Tuesday night, a 59-year-old music teacher was
found dead in his Teaneck, N.J., home after being charged with sexual
assault involving seven students, ages 8 to 13.

Prosecutors said that Samuel S. Aster
had molested his students and videotaped the incidents. His wife found
him dead late Tuesday, hanging with a plastic bag over his head.
His death came just two weeks after the suicide of a Garfield, N.J.,
High School teacher and football coach who had been charged with
aggravated criminal sexual contact involving a 17-year-old female
student.

On Oct. 21, the day after he was charged, Edward P.
Kotwica stepped in front of a New Jersey Transit train headed for the
Garfield station. He was killed instantly.

Prosecutors had
planned to file additional charges the following week. However, the
investigation is not over - prosecutors want to determine if there are
other victims to ensure "they get the help and counseling they need,"
said Bergen County, N.J., Assistant Prosecutor Patricia Baglivi.

In other recent cases:
* A Miami, Fla., High School teacher was arrested Oct. 18 and charged
with seven counts of sexual battery of a minor. One of Sergio Felipe
Sagastume's students told police that the teacher locked the classroom
door and forced her to perform a sex act on him. The girl's father took
her to a rape crises center after she told him what had happened, and
workers there called police after evaluating her.

* In Marion,
Iowa, a middle school teacher was arrested Wednesday and charged with
having sex with a 15-year-old at the school. Michael W. Garoutte was
being held in the Linn County Jail.

* Just days earlier, a
science teacher and wrestling coach in nearby Cedar Rapids surrendered
to police and was charged with sexually abusing a 14-year-old student.
Police said they had obtained e-mail messages from school computers that
showed a relationship between David Wayne Simmons and his student.

* A former student of a Wichita, Kan., drama teacher was awarded
$312,000 last month by a jury that determined the young man's depression
and failures were the result of being abused by his teacher.

That teacher, Ned Berry, currently is serving a prison sentence. He
pleaded no contest to sodomy charges in 1997 after the former student
told police the teacher gave him alcohol on a school field trip, then
assaulted him.

The jury in the civil case found the school
district 45 percent liable for the damages to the student. They said
school officials didn't respond properly to accusations as far back as
1995, when some students said that Berry was abusing boys in a school
basement storeroom. School officials' response was to move Berry's
classroom closer to the principal's office.

* A court date of
Dec. 13 has been set in the case of a former basketball coach at
Vincentian Academy-Duquesne University. He is charged with corrupting
minors and simple assault, based on allegations of inappropriate conduct
with players on his team at the McCandless school.

David Scott
Zimmerman, 32, of Brighton Heights, also has been indicted on a federal
charge of possession of child pornography. The federal charges were
filed as a result of a March 19 search of Zimmerman's home. No date has
been set for that trial.

"Dirty Secrets: Why sexually abusive
teachers aren't stopped," can be seen on the PG Web site at
http://www.post-gazette.com/newslinks/ 19 991031dirtysecretsindex.asp

Teacher-Student Sex: Many Stories Go UntoldBy David Glovin and Debra Lynn VialThe Record - November 7, 1999 He was the guy who was always surrounded by students, the one who
joked with the jocks and was always flirting with - and hugging - the
girls.

He'd walk through the crowded hallways
of their North Jersey school with his arm around Valerie Reicheg. Among
the scribbled messages left in her yearbook that spring, he wrote a note
saying how much he'd miss her. "I have truly grown to love you," it
said.

She was a teenager. He was her teacher.

Shortly after that romantic note, he raped her, she said. Afterward,
he told the hysterical, weeping, girl that it was her fault, that she
was too pretty. Twenty years later, she is still shaken by his threats.

"I was taught to trust and obey teachers," said Reicheg, 35. "I
trusted him, and he did this horrible thing to me. And other teachers
are doing it to other kids today. I gave a speech recently and [people]
in the audience came up afterwards and said they were victims. I hear so
many terrible stories."

Sexual contact
between teacher and student is not supposed to happen. Ever. But it
does. Whether it's an inappropriate touch or the forcible rape of a
student, whether with young children or with teenagers on the edge of
adulthood, such contact is a flagrant - and illegal - breach of trust.

Five cases that unfolded in North Jersey in recent weeks have
revealed a troubling part of schooling. A young Englewood teacher
accused of having sex with her 17-year-old student. A high school girl
in Garfield who says her teacher fondled her. Young girls taking piano
lessons who say their teacher in Teaneck repeatedly molested them and
videotaped the encounters. In Morris County, two teachers at a private
Catholic school have been accused of forcing teenage girls to perform
oral sex, among other things.

There are stark
differences among these cases - the ages of the victims, the locations,
and the kinds of schools - but each of the accused offenders was a
respected teacher who was trusted by students.

Sexual contact between teachers and students is, of course, rare, and
teachers strongly condemn colleagues who overstep the line. But at any
given time, authorities in New Jersey are investigating several
allegations of abuse by educators, prosecutors say. They say that many
more never become known because the victims are too scared to tell their
parents or the police.

Indeed, six girls, ages 8 to 13, were allegedly molested by a 59- year-old music teacher, Samuel S. Aster,
before a seventh reported the crime. Last week, Aster hanged himself
in his Teaneck home, just before he was to meet with prosecutors about
the case. In Garfield, the teenager told police that teacher Edward
Kotwica had abused her for three years. Kotwica stepped in front of a
train two weeks ago, just hours after he had been charged with fondling
the female basketball player. Both teachers in the Morris case have been
accused of molesting several students over a period of years.

"It's much more prevalent than we like to imagine," said Charol
Shakeshaft, a Hofstra University professor who has spent a decade
studying sexual abuse in schools.

Few
statistics on sexual assaults by teachers are available, but a study in
December by the newspaper Education Week found hundreds of cases
involving ongoing sexual abuse of students. The 244 cases found by
Education Week over six months ranged from unwanted touching to
years-long sexual relationships.

"What we're
talking about is kids who have sexual relations or sexual activity with
teachers," said Shakeshaft, who in a 1994 national survey of 225 school
superintendents found that 221 teachers accused of sexual abuse had been
allowed quietly to resign or retire. "Adults have a responsibility to
make sure it doesn't happen."

In North Jersey,
recent cases have ranged from the Elmwood Park elementary school
principal who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for taking photographs
of boys spread-eagled on the floor in his office to a Ringwood educator
who pleaded guilty of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old boy. There are
dozens more.

Passaic County Senior Assistant
Prosecutor Joseph Del Russo rattles off a long list of educators who
have been prosecuted. Among them are a religious teacher who reached up
under parochial middle school uniforms while students were reciting
their lessons and a teacher who, fired from a job in a public school
after a conviction for sexually abusing a student, went to work at a
parochial school.

In high school, the line can
become clouded, and students and teachers can get too cozy. April
Reeves remembers her teenage friends giving back massages to a teacher.
"Only now do I realize it wasn't right," said Reeves, 20, now studying
at Bergen County Community College. "He shouldn't have encouraged it. He
acted like one of us. It's creepy to think about."

At Morris Catholic High School, where physical education teacher and
guidance counselor Frank LePre, 29, and Frank Lieto Jr., a 28- year-old
history teacher, have been accused of sexual contact with students,
some students said rumors of the abuse had been spreading for months.

It's not a subject teachers and principals like to talk about, even
though many say they never knew of an improper relationship in school.

"We'll defend ours for anything but this," said a Passaic County
high school teacher who, like other educators interviewed for this
report, spoke on the condition of anonymity. "Once you do this, you're
really a pariah."

But it happens. Sometimes
teachers are drawn to the profession because of the close contact with
children, experts say. With older students, the dynamic is more complex,
involving, perhaps, a teenager's crush or a teacher's flirtation.

"There are still kids who have crushes on me," said a longtime
Bergen County teacher, a woman. "It doesn't have to do with the age of
the teacher. Just the person herself, just the student knowing someone
cares about them."

Most educators are well
aware that a false accusation can scar or ruin a career and take
measures to avoid trouble. Some refuse to be alone with a student.
Others will never close the door to their classroom. Still, "there's
always rumors, there's always innuendo," the Bergen teacher said.

Indeed, to some educators, the bright-line bar sometimes dims. "How
horrible it is depends on the age difference," the Passaic County
teacher said. "If the teacher is 23 and the girl's 18, it's not that
horrible."

Jane Fielder, assistant director of
the Bergen County Rape Crisis Center, often hears statements like that
from teenagers, too. They're wrong, she said.

"It's just never appropriate for adults to be sexual with kids, either
verbally or [physically]," she said. "They're in a position of trust.
They're in a position of unequal power. You can say the student
consented, and maybe they did. But maybe they felt they had no choice."

Valerie Reicheg knows this feeling. "They are in the position of
enormous power. You're just a child with no experience. You aren't in
control."

It's even worse when the teacher is
beloved, such as the teacher Reicheg says raped her or the Garfield
coach accused of fondling girls. Kotwica was given a hero's funeral, the
flags around the city flying at half-staff. Many of the 500 people who
attended his funeral said they were angry at his accuser.

"It's hard to speak out against someone who is so respected in your
community," said Reicheg, an administrator for an electronics company.
"People come out and say what a terrific person they are. They attack
the victims."

In some cases, it is that very
charisma that the teachers use to attract victims, Del Russo said. "The
kids want to be around them, they want to be part of the group," he
said. "It makes it easy for them."

When Del
Russo's office was prosecuting a popular coach, a gym teacher at Passaic
Valley Regional High School accused of having sex with a teenager, the
judge received 100 letters from supporters. Those came after James P.
Pescatore had already served time for molesting a younger girl.

"Pillars of the community have built up a lot of goodwill," Del
Russo said. "There is a groundswell of support that is unbelievable."

Twenty years ago, Reicheg was flattered when a teacher asked her to
stay after school. "I liked the attention," she said. "You know,
teacher's pet."

He had always hugged students,
so she wasn't surprised when he put his arm around her. Over the
months, he might have said some flirty things, but the teenager didn't
think anything of it. "Other teachers saw him with his arm around me in
the hallways and didn't say anything. The other students would say,
"Going for the young girls now?" she said. "But it seemed OK.

"Now I know he had manipulated me," she said. "He was grooming me all those months for what would happen."

That June, he told her he would take her to an amusement park. She
rode her bike to a school near her house, where he met her. He put her
bike in the trunk, she slipped in the front seat beside him. He said he
had to return home to get something he had forgotten. She was raped in
his house, she said.

He warned her never to
tell, that he would die of a heart attack if she reported the crime. He
said he would lose everything. And he told her she had caused the
attack, she said. "I went home and showered for hours," she said.

It would be roughly 20 years before she would report the abuse. By
then, the statute of limitations had run out and she could not file
charges.

Mary Ann Werner, founder of a group
called Survivors of Educator Sexual Abuse and Misconduct Emerge, says
trust between teacher and pupil develops gradually over time, and often a
bond develops. A student may help the teacher grade homework, and in
time the relationship evolves to the point where the two are alone
together.

Werner sees other similarities.
"Another theme," she said, "is many of the people in authority have a
special role in school - music, drama, coaching, school yearbook - so
the kids hang on every word of praise."

Now, Reicheg is hoping people will hang on her every word during talks she gives in the community.

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Survivors ARE Heroes!

The Awareness Center believes ALL survivors of sex crimes should be given yellow ribbons to wear proudly.

Survivors of sexual violence (as adults and/or as a child) are just as deserving of a yellow ribbon as the men and women of our armed forces, who have been held captive as hostages or prisoners of war.

Survivors of sexual violence have been forced to learn how to survive, being held captive not by foreigners, but mostly by their own family members, teachers, camp counselors, coaches babysitters, rabbis, cantors or other trusted authority figures.

For these reasons ALL survivors of sexual violence should be seen as heroes!